The threat of musical stagnation can be a creative band’s greatest fear. In striving to grow musically, creatively and commercially, musicians may feel they need to change their sound and or style of making music. However by doing this, a band may often cast-aside the musical elements that captivated their fans in the first place. So how can a band hold on to their musical equity and at the same time continue to evolve? Read more…

The day of reckoning has finally arrived. Today, the much-lauded Barack Obama brand machine, which has been working around the clock to inspire and influence a global audience, will finally stand up and be counted. And so far, so good, with recent figures from CBS and the New York Times suggesting that 80 per cent of Americans feel positive about the next four years under the former Illinois senator. But while few would cast doubt on Obama’s personal sentiment during his stirring speeches, his success is by no means one solely of his own making.

Like all politicians, Obama has marketed himself to the max and earlier this week uniquely demonstrated the invaluable impact of a relatively new kind of branding. This technique uses music to represent a brand’s core beliefs and values – it’s about finding the sound of the brand. While we are all exposed to music in commercials on a regular basis, Sunday’s We Are One concert held at Washington DC’s Lincoln Memorial, was a first-class demonstration of the importance of music branding on a different scale. The event proved to those in attendance and indeed, the rest of the world, how sound can not only trigger strong emotions but target any number of different groups and simultaneously unite them.

So what is the “Sound of Obama”? Read more…